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I am not so sure that nearness to visual reality always matters.
I used to be a big flight sim fan and noticed that commercial flight sims were much of the time less visually realistic than some computer game flight sims.
I think what counts is what could be termed as "immersion", that is how immersed you become in the universe of the game, realistic graphics don't always help in the feeling of immersion.
It's a bit like how huge TV screens don't make a massive difference for me, as long as I am immersed in the movie the size of the screen is not too important.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
modified 9-Oct-20 4:33am.
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Minecraft is a sandbox without the mess... a virtual set of Legos in a way. I'm not aware of any premium visuals game that offers the same level of creation freedom.
Sure, it's not visually impressive (unless you do the raycasting stuff) but it was never meant to be.
It really is enjoyable to play, especially with kids, and doesn't sell itself on trying to make you believe its world is real. Just hop in the dang sandbox and build your castle already! 
modified 9-Oct-20 8:24am.
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I agree with you, but Minecraft takes it to such a degree that I find it off-putting.
I mean, by now they could create a sandbox like it and have it look good at the same time. To me that would make it a lot more enticing. I do like sandbox games (heck I'll admit to playing first two Sims games back in the day, for its building ability)...but graphically, Minecraft looks even older than that.
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Fus Ro Dah!!
Sorry, that was a reflex.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Cows are ok but this Ants vs. Carnivorous Plants - YouTube[^] was in the sidebar and was very fascinating.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
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Recently my old Dell Inspiron laptop, (some 10+ years old), started to throw in the towel: WiFi failed, Bluetooth failed, Hard drive showed erratic errors. So I decided to retire it to the great laptop heaven in the sky.
I ordered a new Dell XPS 15 inch screen and it arrived with loads of crapware installed by Dell. The operating system appeared to be spread over six partitions - yuck! Ever present on Dell products was McAfee stuff that is difficult to get rid of. Double yuck!
What was I to do? The answer: A clean install.
Using Diskpart I ran "clean" on the disk, converted it to GPT and running a Dirkpart script repartitioned the main drive to a modest 4 partitions. Then I installed Windows 10(2004) on the machine. NICE! All the pre-installed garbage gone!
The only issue: The machine came with fingerprint recognition. Windows 10 did install the latest driver for the fingerprint device, but so far I cannot get it to work. Not important. Will figure it out in due course.
I may be a masochist, but I love doing clean installs. There must be something wrong with me.
My time doing a clean install:
Booting a Windows PE flash drive and running a Diskpart script to clean the systems disk and repartition it: No more than 5 minutes.
Installing Windows 10 (2004): Maybe 10 minutes.
Updating Windows 10: Possibly 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine.
Installing all apps: Well, forever? It depends on your needs.
IMPORTANT:
Stay away from Diskpart unless you know what you are doing. For example: Running the Diskpart "clean" command on a drive will knock it back to the virgin state it was in when it first left the assembly line. It won't even now whether it is a GPT or MBR drive. All partitions and data will be gone forever! Diskpart has no "Are you sure?" prompts. Commands are executed without prompts immediately.
I am not wrong. I am just different!
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I just got a new Asus laptop with all the various crapware, and I'd love to do a clean install, but I'm scared that there will be something in the standard image that I wouldn't be able to get separately.
So I am stuck with McAfee. 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Get an image of the whole drive with macrium or aomei of the current status and you have your fallback solution for the
Richard Andrew x64 wrote: I'm scared that there will be something in the standard image that I wouldn't be able to get separately.
If you manage to get it separately... screw you bloatware!! 
If not... restore the image and continue with
Richard Andrew x64 wrote: I am stuck with McAfee. 
That's what I always do when I get a new device or doing a (from time to time) clean install anyways.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Cp-Coder wrote: The only issue: The machine came with fingerprint recognition. Windows 10 did install the latest driver for the fingerprint device, but so far I cannot get it to work.
Dell has a downloadable program that scans your (Dell) computer, and recommends the correct Dell-blessed drivers. My google-fu isn't working too well today, so I don't have a link.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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You are right! I found the utility on the Dell website that installed the correct driver and fingerprint recognition is now working great! 
I am not wrong. I am just different!
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I have had similar experiences with Dells. It really is about time manufacturers offered an option of hardware plus OS (Windows or Linux) for developers.
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Once you build your own machine, you never want to go back.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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I get pleasure from disabling stuff in the Startup Tab: "har, har ... trying to get past me ... Noooo!".
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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You made it too difficult. Do a custom install deleting the partitions with the Windows 10 Retail ISO and then download, install and run the Dell Command | Update. On the first run, make sure you review the optional updates and tell it to ignore Dell Digital Delivery unless you purchased optional software such as Adobe. Once this is done then go to Microsoft Update for updates.
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Cp-Coder wrote: I may be a masochist, but I love doing clean installs. There must be something wrong with me.
IMO there's something wrong if you don't do a clean install. Those who fall into that camp either:
a) don't have the technical know-how
b) don't know any better
I don't know why you're doing anything with WinPE to deal with the partitions. "Burn" the OS ISO to a USB stick and let it own the entire disk. It's recreate the minimum set of partitions it needs and carry on.
Cp-Coder wrote: All partitions and data will be gone forever!
If the laptop's brand new, isn't that the point?
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I seriously consider buying an electric 4-wheel moped from Paxster[^]. The one pictured is white, but the second (and only) alternative is bright red. Of course I will go for the red version! My huge Ford Transit box car is bright red, and for obvious reasons named 'Robert'.
Postman Pat came (at least to Norway) after I left the target audience. That is why I ask: Did Postman Pat's car have a name? One that I could use for my car? Hopefully a name that could go along with 'Robert'. I really would like a name directly associated with the bright red color! Or if the car didn't have a name, what would be a proper name for it, in Postman Pat style? (And if possible, with direct or indirect references to the red color.)
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I wonder how it does off-road. 
Laughing at this typo -- "unessecary" . 
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That looks really cool
But how do you think it would do in a crash test? 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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This is a moped (or "class L6e"). Compared to a "classical" mopeds, I think it is likely to be much safer. E.g. it has proper seat belts. Being a four wheel vehicle, it is far more stable than a two wheel (or even three wheel) scooter; it won't tip over very easily.
As a moped, it has a maximum speed of 45 km/h. Compared to a car running at 80 km/h, this reduces the risks significantly. Mopeds generally keep to the right in lane, so a head-on collision with a car coming towards you at 80 km/h is less likely than if you were driving a car.
This is certainly not a vehicle meant for highway driving, where you have those situations crash tests are aimed at. It is for city driving. Sure, you have accidents even in the city, but they are more like bumping into each other - nothing comparable to a crash test.
I am certainly not expecting the same crash safety as in a modern car. But if I were to reject it on grounds of crash safety, I would have to reject all sorts of mopeds, motorcycles, ordinary bikes, and not the least these modern electrical "kick scooters" you see everywhere nowadays.
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trønderen wrote: it has a maximum speed of 45 km/h
trønderen wrote: It is for city driving
These two statements seem to be at odds with each other.
I'm guessing these aren't allowed in bike lanes either (assuming they were to exist at all).
trønderen wrote: Sure, you have accidents even in the city
Yeah - having to swerve into the opposite lane to go around those who can't keep up with traffic is a great way to cause said accidents.
My stance is simply this: You can't allow bicycles, golf carts, mopeds and pedestrians onto the same streets as car, trucks and tractor trailers, and have city councilors declare their city as "eco-friendly". Innocent people pay the price for that level stupidity.
I work with someone who has a friend who's now spending the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair because someone thought it was a good idea to mix bicycles with other traffic. Co-existence, my ass - if I had to bid on a car's bumper vs someone's kneecaps...it's a no-brainer to me. I'd be terrified sitting in a thing like this in the inner city with cars going all around me.
Yes, I do feel rather strongly about this, thanks for asking.
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dandy72 wrote: Yeah - having to swerve into the opposite lane to go around those who can't keep up with traffic is a great way to cause said accidents.
I have been driving a moped tricycle for a while, same 45 km/h max speed and as wide as the Paxster. Even though the speed limit is 50 km/h, in the city cars rarely go at the speed limit. The trike had no problem keeping up with the car traffic. Now and then I was of course overtaken, not by car drivers wanting to drive at 48-50 rather than 45 km/h, but by those coming up like an arrow from behind, whooshing past me at 60-70 km/h, out of sight within a few seconds. Those driving like that know to look for conflicts with other cars (or they wouldn't be driving long). 45 km/h "enough" to not be a hindrance for cars within the city. I know from practical experience.
If you insist on driving faster, there is an L7e version of the Paxster as well, with a 60 km/h speed limit. But arguing for higher speed to improve safety and prevent people from ending up in wheelchairs will not be supported by those analyzing traffic problems.
In Norway, bikes have for the last 30-40 years been allowed to use the sidewalks. It has lead to a lot of conflicts and some serious accidents, and traffic planners in many other countries think we are crazy. When electric bikes arrived, they too were allowed to race down the sidewalks, yelling to pedestrians to get out of their way. We got these electric kick-scooters, and they were classified as bikes with the right to use the sidewalk. There is no longer room for pedestrians there...
For a couple kilometers on my way to work, there are separate biking lanes on both sides of the road. Yet, way more than half of the bikers choose the sidewalk, yelling angrily if I don't get out of their way fast enough. If I stop and just point to the biking lane, they get really mad!
Cities have these pesky buildings sitting in the way, limiting the maximum width of the road. There simply isn't room for separate lanes for pedestrians, pedal bikes, el-bikes / el-scooters, mopeds and cars, in both directions. We must co-exist, and learn to adapt to each other. We cannot always demand to have our full rights to drive as if we were alone on the road. The you can drive at 50 km/h is small. The time that you are behind a 45 km/h moped is small. The combination, where the moped ahead of you is what prevents you from your car-given right to drive at 50, and not that car ahead of the moped, is very rare in city traffic.
Separating different kinds of traffic is a good idea, if space and other resources allow. But demanding a separate lane for vehicles because they can drive at "only" 90% of the speed limit would be crazy. And equally crazy putting pedal bikers at 7-15 km/hour in the same lane as 45 km/h mopeds.
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trønderen wrote: And equally crazy putting pedal bikers at 7-15 km/hour in the same lane as 45 km/h mopeds
That's the sort of thing I object to. Placing different vehicles that have completely different acceleration/cruising speeds on the same roads.
I was about 7 when I realized a bike had no place on public roads. There's plenty of adults who don't understand that understand that but still believe it's their God-given right to impede traffic. They know they do, and don't care. The smug ones even take pleasure in it.
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Call it Sam, after Samuel W. Alderson[^] - he invented the crash test dummy. Something I don't think has ever been in that vehicle. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I don't think Postman Pat's car has a name.
But how about Paxter McPacface? 
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